Steam-engine valve-gear.



EATENIEE SEPT. ze, 1905. E. HILL. v STEAM ENGINE VALVE GELE.

LIJELIOATIOII EILED EEE. 17.1905.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

.www @E i S PM..

.MIREN NNE@ [VEZ/2266666:

A N0.800,301. 2 v PATENTED SEPT. 26., 19.05.

E. HILL.` l

STEAM ENGINE VALVE GEAR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 17, 1905.v

4 SHEETS/ SHEET 2..

@calza/07:'

per

PATBNTED SEPT. 26, 19051.'

F.y HILL. STEAM ENGINE VALVE GEAR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 17,1905.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

ver

' zorzzey @Mr/VT All m. @(MML4 Noyoool. EATENTEESEPT. ze, 1905.

, E E. EILL.

STEAM ENGINE VALVE GEAE.

APYLIOATION FILEDI PEB. 17. 1905.

` 4 SHEETS-SHEET 4.

UNITED sTATEs PATENT orrion.

HILL, OF ORWALK, CONNECTICUT.

STEAM-ENGI N E VALVEGEAR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 26, 1905.

. Application iiled February 17, 1905. Serial No. 246,058.

To allwhom t may concern: l l

Be it known that I, EBENEZER HILL, a citizen of the United States, residing at Norwallc, in the county of Fairiield and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful valves, but at the same time under thecontrol of a governor operate independently of; the valve-opening mechamsm 1n such manner that the time of action of theltrip mechanism j with relation to the time of action of the valveyopening mechanism willobe retarded or ad vanced from about Zero to one hundred and eighty degrees according to the demand of the engine for more or less steam. I

Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents a side elevation of an engine provided with a valve-gearwhicb embodies this invention. Fig. 2 shows, on larger scale,a side elevation of the mechanism adjacent to one ofthe steam-inlet valves. A Fig. 3 shows a plan of the valve mechanism. Fig. 4 shows the valve-stem arm and catch. Fig. 5 shows the valve-opening latch. Fig. 6 shows the latch- .trip and trip-arm. Fig. 7 shows themechanism adjacent to the eccentric and the governor. Fig. 8 shows, on larger scale, the'eccentric mechanism.' Fig. 9 shows a plan of the eccentric mechanism. Fig. 10 shows the latchlever and latch. Fig. 11 shows side and plan Viewsof the valve-stem arm and catch. Fig.

12 shows the trip and trip-arm. Fig. 13 shows the wrist-plate. Fig. 14 shows a side view of the wrist-plate levers. Fig. 15 shows a sec' tion of the wrist-plate and wrist-plate levers.` On the outer end of the stem 1 of each lsteam-inlet valve is a loose lever 2. One end of each of these levers is connected by a link 3 with a'wrist-plate 4. Fivotally hung on the other4 end of each of these levers is a hooked latch 5, which has a releasing-finger 6, Figs. 1, 2, 5, 10. Keyedto each valvestem is an arm 7 ,with a catch 8, that is adapted `the catch-arm and close the valve.

rstud on the return-crank, Figs. l, 7.

to be engaged by the latch which is forced connects each of l'thevvalve-stem catch-arms with a piston in a vacuum dash-pot, Figs. 1, 2,4, 11. Loosely mounted on each valvestern isa `ring 12, which in the plane of movement of the latch-releasing linger has al trip '13 and an arm 14. Each of these arms is by a link 15 connected with the upper end of a lever 16, which is attached to the inner end of a shaft 17 that is carried by the wrist-plate. On the outer end of this floating shaft is a lever 18, Figs. 1, 2, 6, 12. The oscillation of the wrist-plate through the links oscillates the latch-levers and causes the latches to engage the catches and lift the arms and open the valves. The oscillation of the floating levers through the links oscillates the trip- 4arms and trips.f When a trip is oscillated into the path 'of and engages the releasing- 'finger of a latch, that latch is disengaged from the catch, so that'the vacuum in the dash-pot produced bylifting the arm or other suitable mechanism which is commonly employed for this purpose will cause the rod to pull down When the trip is oscillated out of the way, the latch y toward the catch by a spring 9. A rod 10 i can again hook onto the catch and when lifted open the valve.

Inf the particular form of engine illustrated the lowerxend ofthe wrist-plate is by arod 19 connected with a rocker-arm 20 on a shaft 2l, which has a rocker-arm 22, that is .connected bythe eccentric-rod 23 with the eccentric 24. This eccentric is a stud on the return-crank 25, that is attached to the main crank-pin 26in such manner that the eccentric is approximately ninety degrees in advance of the crank. The rotation of this ec-` centricthrough the eccentric-rod and connecting-rod oscillates the wrist-plate that is connected with the latch-levers and which supports the levers that are connected with the trip-arms, Figs. 1,."7. The lower end of the floating lever. 18 is by a rod-27 connected with a rocker-arm 28 on a shaft 29, that IOO has a rocker-arm 30, whichis connected by an eccentric-rod 31 with an eccentric 32. This eccentric is loosely mounted-*on a pin 33,; which projects concentric with the main eccentricf The bell-crank connections between the wrist- Ios' plate and main or valve-opening eccentric and 4 between the ioating lever and auxiliary or 'trip eccentric are mere details of transmission IIO and are not material to the invention.

By mounting the trip -eeeentric on the valve-eccentric the throw of the former will always be the same with respect to the throw of the latter, and the amount of movement of the l'loating levers with respect to the amount o1c movement ot' the wrist-plate will always be the same, although the movement of the floating levers through space will vary according to the position oi' the trip-eccentric with relation to the valve-eccentric and the oscillations of the floating levers will vary as to time with respect to the oscillations of the wristplate according to the position of the tripeccentric with relation to the valve-eccentric.

Attached to the eccentric 32 is a gear 34, which meshes with an intermediate gear 35,

that meshes with a gear 36, the center of which u is coincident with the center of the shaft. The gear 36 is keyed to a shaft 37, supported by the plate 38, on which shaft is an arm 39, that by a rod 40 is connected with the governor-lever 41, Figs. l, 7. As long as the demand for steam is uniform the arm 38 and the gear 36 are held in one position. With these in one position the eccentric 32 operates the same at each revolution with relation to the eccentric 24 and causes the trips to release the latches from the catches and allow the dash-pots to close the valves at the same place during each stroke. If the demand for steam increases or diminishes and the governor changes, the gear 36 is rotated and through the intermediate gear 35 rotates the gear 34 and the eccentric 32 in a direction depending upon whether the governorlever is raised or lowered, and this changes the relation of the eccentric 32 to the eccentric 34 and causes such a change in the time of movement of the trips that the latches are released from the catches at a dierent place. As the throw of the eccentric 32 can be changed one hundred and eighty degrees or one-half a revolution with relation to the throw of the eccentric 24 by means of the governor, the trips may engage and release the latches anywhere during one-half of a revolution of the crank-shaft or from zero to full stroke of the piston. In this construction the trips which release the catches have an oscillating movement about the axis of the valves and pass into the paths of the latchreleasing fingers every stroke and at some time come in contact with them, so as to release the latches and allow the valves to close. The time of release will depend upon the time of contact of the trips with the releasing-fingers, and this depends upon the relative positions ot' the valve-eccentric and the trip-eccentric which is controlled by the governor. It' the engine demands more steam, the governor draws back the trip-eccentric, so that the trips will not engage the latches as earlyl during the stroke. It' the engine does not need as much steam, the governor advances the tmp-eccentric and this causes the trips to engage the latches sooner and causes the steam to be cut off earlier during the stroke.

The invention claimed is--- 1. An eng'ine valve-gear having an eccentric for opening' the valves, a shitting eccentric carried by the valve-opening eccentric lor tripping the valves and allowing` them to close, and means for shiftingthc tripping-eccentric, substantially as spceilied.

2. An engine valve-gear having an eccelltric for opening' the valves, a shifting eccentric carried by the valve-opening' eccentric for tripping the valves and allowingl them to close, and a governor for shitting the tripping-eecentric, substantially as specilied.

3. An engine valve gear having a wristplate arranged to open the valves, an eccentric for oscillating the wrist-plate, iioating levers carried by the wrist-plate and arranged to trip the valves and allow them to close, and ashifting eccentric carried by the valve-opening eccentric for oscillating the floating' levers, substantially as specified.

4. An engine valve-gear having a wristplate arranged to open the valves, an eccentric for oscillating the wrist-plate, iloating' levers carried bythe wrist-plate and arranged to trip the valves and allow them to close, a shifting eccentric carried by the valve-opening eccentric for oscillating the floating' levers, and a governor for shifting the tripping-eccentric, substantially as speciiied.

An engine valve-gear having an cecentric for opening the valves, a shifting' eccentric carried by the valve-opening ccccn tric for tripping the valves and allowing them to close, intermeshing gears connected with the shilting eccentric, and a governor connected with the gears, substantially as speeiiied.

6. An engine valve-gear having an eccentric for opening' the valves, a shifting eccentric carried by the valve-opening eccentric for tripping the valves and allowing' them to close, a gear connected with the tripping-eecentrie, a governor, a gear connected with the g'overnor, and a gear meshing with the governorgear and the eccentric-gear, substantially as specified.

7. An engine valve-gear having latches arranged to open the valves, an eccentric connected with and adapted to cause the latches to open the valves, trips arranged to release the latches and allow the valves to close, an eccentric carried by the valve-opening eccentric and connected with the trips, and a governor connected with the trip-eccentric, substantially as speciiied.

8. An engine valve-gear having an eccentric for opening the valves, an eccentric hung' on the center of the valve-opening eccentric and adapted to trip the valves and allow them to close, a gear attached to the shifting cecentric, an intermediate gear meshing' with the eccentric-gear, a gear with its axis coincident with the axis of the shaft meshing with the intermediate gear, and a governor arranged to oscillate the gear which is-concentric With the shaft, substantially as specified.

9. Anv engine valve-gear having latches arranged to open the valves, an eccentric connected with and arranged to cause the latches to open the valves, trips arrangedto release the latches and allow the valves to close, and

an eccentric rotating'with and also independently of the latch-operating.eccentric and connected with and arranged to oscillate the trips, substantially as specified.-

10. An engine valve-gear having latches arranged to open the Valves, an eccentric connected With the latches and arranged to cause them to open the valves, trips arranged to release the latches and allow the valves to* close, 

